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These are just some thoughts I have had and you have probably had similar thoughts also.
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This is the actual content.
Musings
What do these situations and circumstances teach us? That life requires
us to live with conditions. What conditions? Thare are many and among
them are certain requirements. Requirements that you may find yourself
living near or among those who are different from you., but who you
must understand in order to continue living there in peace. There is a
requirement that your resources to use may need to come from a shared
environment and that responsibility may also be shared. If conflict
can not be prevented from the beginning, then how will the conflict be
dealt with when it does arise? There must be leaders of good characte
who are not double-tongued. Are there any leaders of good character who
are approved by all after the test of the conflict?
Shall we do immoral compromises with evil?
But what of the gypsies of Europe? Second class citizens everywhere it sems.
Milosevic d.2006
I hope that the Balkan affairs are behind us. We seem more preoccupied with
Iraq these days. The UN is looking on and dealing with the situation. And
the Europeans are taking care of their homegrown problems. Surely I am correct.
................................
All was Well during the glitter Clinton years and many castles were built.
But when the waves came, and Clinton was headed to higher ground, out of
office, the castles came crashing down. They were made from sand and sat
at the water's edge, so the owners could see their reflections. And so came
the end of the dot.com economy, revealing the weaknesses of Clinton's
economic miracle foundations and the source of the ephemeral wealth which
Clinton took credit for.
***************************************
And, still, it continues....
Serbian troops force rebels out 16 May 2001
ORAOVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Yugoslav security forces pushed ethnic Albanian rebels out of a contested southern village in
house-to-house fighting Tuesday, sending civilians fleeing or cowering in basements. Backed by a tank and several armored
personnel carriers, army and police units clashed with the insurgents and retook Oraovica, a village seized earlier in the week
by insurgents operating in the buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic. By nightfall,
the militants retreated to strongholds just outside the Kosovo boundary. The rebels have seized a swathe of territory in the
3-mile-wide buffer zone that separates Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.
21 Jan 2000 Conservatives Cite Kosovo Failure
By DAVID BRISCOE= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) _ NATO's defeat of Serb forces in Kosovo was an
empty victory with results so far ``just shy of a full-blown public
fiasco,'' says an assessment of the conflict by primarily
conservative scholars and analysts.
In the book of essays, they propose a partitioning of Kosovo and
a stronger European security role.
Published by Cato Institute, a research foundation that
advocates free enterprise and limited government, ``NATO's Empty
Victory: A Postmortem of the Balkan War'' says NATO has become the
``baby sitter of the Balkans.''
The conflict led to increased bloodshed on both sides, further
destabilized the Balkans, set dangerous precedents for the wielding
of U.S. presidential power and strained relations with Russia and
China, the authors conclude.
``The United States and its allies technically may have achieved
a military victory against Yugoslavia, but it is an empty
victory,'' said Cato's Ted Galen Carpenter, editor of the
compilation that was introduced at a forum Thursday.
The analyses contrast with upbeat Clinton administration
assessments of the air campaign that drove Serbs out of the
province and allowed ethnic Albanians to return under U.N.
protection eight months ago. Clinton and other NATO officials
describe it as a strong humanitarian victory.
``Now we care about one another in ways we never did before,''
Clinton said in summing up the impact of NATO's Kosovo liberation.
Relations with China, strained when U.S. planes accidentally
bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, also are on the mend,
officials say.
Administration officials, however, have acknowledged a daunting
task in dealing with continuing ethnic conflict in Kosovo, still
protected by 50,000 NATO-led troops, and elsewhere in the Balkans.
Also, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remains in power and is
wanted for trial by an international war crimes tribunal.
The Cato report says the transformation of NATO from ``an
alliance to defend the territory of its members to an ambitious
crisis-management organization has profound and disturbing
implication for the United States.''
One positive result that may emerge from the conflict, writes
Jonathan G. Clarke, a former British diplomat on a research
fellowship at Cato, could be a realization that Europe has to
assume more responsibility for its own defenses.
Clarke notes, however, that despite positive rhetoric from
European governments, their defense budgets continue to decline. He
called for more U.S. pressure on Europe to step up defense
commitments.
John J. Mearsheimer, a University of Chicago scholar on
international security policy, wrote that despite its military
victory, NATO is in a ``political no-win situation'' in Kosovo and
proposed partitioning the province, creating an independent
Albanian Kosovo state.
``Does anyone seriously believe that the Albanian Kosovars and
the Serbs can live together again after all the bloodletting?''
Mearsheimer wrote.
Only three alternatives remain, he said: endless ethnic conflict
and retribution, Serb cleansing of Albanians or Albanian cleansing
of Serbs.
``Partition is clearly better than any of those unacceptable
choices,'' Mearsheimer said.
15 Apr 1999 - Considering the amount of money spent on the Kosovo
War, some $3 billion, or more, could not a protected enclave of land
been bought for the Kosovo refugees?
16 Apr 1999 - Is there a city somewhere, where the city planners have
the foresight to build roads with adequate right-of-ways on the sides
for placement of utilities, so that the road isn't immediately ripped
up after being freshly paved so the underground pipes can be redone
again?
16 Apr 1999 - Irregardless of what your input to the discussion of
war might be, I still believe that the old saying, 'war is hell,'
is still true.
19 Apr 1999 - It is amazing the handle which our government
representatives have on issues of money. Today Pres. Clinton threw
out a new number, a request for Kosovo, of only $6 billion, after
$3 billion was mentioned only 4 days ago. I can't even comprehend
1 billion let alone 3 or 6 billion.
11 May 1999 - How many shells is a country allowed to use for their
official shell game of accountability? China is asked by many
international groups to improve their human rights [no one notices
Tibetan refugees, and don't forget Tianeman Square] and they drag
their official feet for years, then one day an embassy of theirs is
accidentally bombed, no apologies are adequate, and all official
steps towards improvement in human relations are stopped while all
attention in riveted onto the new shell on the table.
20 May 1999 - The figure to pay for Kosovo is now to $15 billion.
I wonder why when the money is in my hands, it is hard earned cash,
but when it is in the government's hand it is called surplus?
1 July 1999 - Now that the fighting is over, the claim by the
government is that the cost was $4 billion. Of the suspected
100,000 dead Kosovars, they now estimate 10,000. The large slaughter
of animals and torching of fields apparently didn't occur. Where did
our government experts get these numbers and facts(or estimates) to
send us into such a destructive venture.
2 Aug 1999 - As we look at Kosovo now, we can see that NATO's actions
have yielded excellent results. Kosovo can now allow people of all
backgrounds to live safely and in harmony with each other. Uh, Duh!
What happened to people learning from history? Guess I read the wrong
history.
8 Aug 1999 - The East Timorese vote for independence
Now what took those in control so long to access the real
situation and act on the visible evidence of so much
unrestrained killing.
12 Sep 1999 JAKARTA, Indonesia - from USA Today
President B.J. Habibie approved the dispatch of a
U.N. peacekeeping force to ravaged East Timor Sunday,
a stunning about-face for the Indonesian government.
Indonesia previously had refused to accept an
international force, insisting it could quell the violence
in East Timor. "I have made the decision to give our
approval to a peacekeeping force, together with the
Indonesian military, to maintain the security of East
Timor,'' Habibie said in a national television address
after a series of meetings with senior Cabinet ministers
and his military chief. Sandy Berger, the U.S. national
security adviser, said the U.N. mission would be an
''overwhelmingly Asian force.'' President Clinton
had previously pledged U.S. logistical support, and
Berger said the focus would not be on U.S. infantry
troops.
Berlin(AP) 27 October 1999 East Germany's last communist leader said Monday Germans should be
thankful he avoided bloodshed when the Berlin Wall fell, not jail him for earlier wall shootings.
Egon Krenz, who ruled the former communist country for six weeks during the turbulent autumn
of 1989, insisted that the 6-year jail sentence he received in post-unity Germany is illegal.
History shows that might makes right, or in other words, whoever is in power determines what is
right, at least as far as the masses are concerned.
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The following was sent to me as an email. I can't vouch for its accuracy.
However, I remember that at least in part, it agrees with the events as
I remember them from the news at that time. For the most part, we are a
forgiving people, but should we be forgetting?
Looks like Hanoi Jane may be honored as one of the "100 Women of the
Century". JANE FONDA remembered? Unfortunately many have forgotten and
still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only
the idea of our "country", but especially the American service men who
served and sacrificed during the Vietnam conflict. There are few things
I have strong visceral reactions to, but Jane Fonda's participation in
what I believe to be blatant treason, is one of them. Part of my
conviction comes from exposure to those who suffered her attentions.
The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is
Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat. In 1968, the Commandant of the USAF
Survival School was a former POW in Ho Lo Prison-the "Hanoi Hilton".
Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in
clean PJs, he was ordered to describe, for a visiting American "Peace
Activist (Jane Fonda)" the "lenient and humane treatment" he'd received.
He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and dragged away. During the
subsequent beating, he fell forward upon the camp Commandant's feet,
accidentally pulling the man's shoe off-which sent that Viet Cong
officer berserk. In '78, the AF Col. still suffered from double vision
(which permanently ended his flying days) from the Vietnamese Col's
frenzied application of wooden baton.
From 1983-85, Col Larry Carrigan was the 347FW/DO (F-4Es). He
spent 6 years in the "Hilton"-the first three of which he was "missing
in action". His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. His group,
too, got the cleaned/fed/clothed routine in preparation for a "peace
delegation" visit. They, however, had time and devised a plan to get
word to the world that they still survived. Each man secreted a tiny
piece of paper, with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of
his hand. When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the
line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets
like: "Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?" and "Are you grateful for
the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?" Believing this HAD
to be an act on her part, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.
She took them all without missing a beat. At the end of the line and
once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs,
she turned to the Vietnamese officer in charge...and handed him the
little pile papers. Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Col
Carrigan was almost number four. For years after their release, a group
of determined former POWs Including Col Carrigan, tried to bring Ms.
Fonda and others up on charges of treason. I don't know that they used
it, but the charge of "Negligent Homicide due to Depraved Indifference"
would also seem appropriate. Her obvious "granting of aid and comfort to
the enemy", alone, should've been sufficient for the treason count.
However, to date, Jane Fonda has never been formally charged with
anything and continues to enjoy the privileged life of the rich and
famous. I, personally, think that this is shame on us, the American
Citizenry. Part of our shortfall is ignorance: most don't know such
actions ever took place. Thought you might appreciate the knowledge.
Most of you've probably already seen this by now, only addition I
might add to these sentiments is to remember the satisfaction of
relieving myself into the urinal at some airbase or another where "zaps"
of Hanoi Jane's face had been applied.
To whom it may concern:
I was a civilian economic development advisor in Vietnam, and was
captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968,
and held for over 5 years. I spent 27 months in solitary confinement,
one year in a cage in Cambodia, and one year in a "black box" in Hanoi.
My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female
missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Ban me Thuot, SouthVietnam, whom
I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I was
weighing approximately 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs.) We were
Jane Fonda's "war criminals." When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked
by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet
with Jane Fonda. I said yes, for I would like to tell her about the real
treatment we POWs were receiving, which was far different from the
treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by Jane Fonda,
as "humane and lenient." Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky
floor on my knees with outstretched arms with a piece of steel placed on
my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane every time my arms dipped. I had
the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda for a couple of hours after I
was released. I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV.
She did not answer me; her former husband, Tom Hayden, answered for her.
She was mind controlled by her husband. This does not exemplify someone
who should be honored as "100 Years of Great Women." After I was
released, I was asked what I thought of Jane Fonda and the anti-war
movement. I said that I held Joan Baez's husband in very high regard,
for he thought the war was wrong, burned his draft card and went to
prison in protest. If the other anti-war protesters took this same
route, it would have brought our judicial system to a halt and ended the
war much earlier, and there wouldn't be as many on that somber black
granite wall called the Vietnam Memorial. This is democracy. This is the
American way. Jane Fonda, on the other hand, chose to be a traitor, and
went to Hanoi, wore their uniform, propagandized for the communists, and
urged American soldiers to desert. As we were being tortured, and some
of the POWs murdered, she called us liars. A fter her heroes-the North
Vietnamese communists-took over South Vietnam, they systematically
murdered 80,000 South Vietnamese political prisoners. May their souls
rest on her head forever. Shame! Shame! (History is a heavy sword in the
hands of those who refuse to forget it. Think of this the next time you
see Ms. Fonda-Turner at a Braves game). Please take the time to read and
forward to as many people as you possibly can. It will eventually end up
on her computer and she needs to know that "we will never forget". Lest
we forget..."100 years of great women" Jane Fonda should never be
considered.
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